The top radios to buy

The Roberts Stream 94i is the best radio we’ve reviewed for under £200, with our reviewer crowning it as the ultimate kitchen radio. The design isn’t as bright or aesthetically pleasing as Roberts’ wonderfully retro Revival range, from which we’ve tested the Revival RD-60, the Revival RD-70 and the Revival Petite in the past. However, if you’re looking for a more unassuming appearance, the 94i’s wood, plastic and faux leather construction may appeal more. 

Along with DAB/FM radio, there’s Wi-Fi for Internet radio along with Bluetooth for those looking to stream music from another device. You can set alarms and kitchen timers, There are five presets that double as playback controls when listening to music via Bluetooth with a further 40 station shortcuts available through the Preset button. 

The Stream 94i also supports the Undok app, which can be used to stream audio over a home network or used on conjunction with a USB stick to access files. We found this particularly useful with Internet radio, with so many stations to browse it’s much easier to do so on a smartphone. Spotify Connect is present for subscribers of that music service.

There is the option to make this radio portable with a battery pack that offers 6-10 hours of playtime. We did find it rather rather clunky-looking and an additional £40-45 needs to be budgeted as it doesn’t come with the radio itself.

The radio’s speaker set-up features two small drivers on the front and a larger one on the back to act as a subwoofer. We found this offered a good treble clarity for spoken-word stations and solid power for bass when listening to music. However, it is quite treble-forward and compared to the (now unavailable) Pure Siesta Home, it’s mid-range performance isn’t quite as rounded or as natural. 

Reviewer: Andrew Williams
Full Review: Roberts Stream 94i

The Roberts Zen Plus is a compact bedside radio that comes with some “wellness” features to help send you off to sleep. For the performance and feature sets it does feel a little expensive, but considering its size the audio performance is better than some bigger radios.

It’s a stylish effort with a neat textured fabric covering that wraps around the top half of its body, and its compact size ensures it takes up less space on a bedside table. Available in three colours we found the Zen Plus to be a simple, modern-looking radio.

The LCD clock screen takes up the front of the speaker and our reviewer found it easy to read even from a distance. After a few minutes the screen can auto dim, but if you prefer to change the brightness manually, that can be done through the menus.

The interface of Zen Plus works fine for the most part, but it can also be slightly unresponsive to touches, leaving us prodding at the screen on occasion. The screen can flash repeatedly as well for reasons we haven’t figured out. Presets number 20 in total with 10 for DAB and 10 for DAB, which is less than the Groov-e Zeus but to be honest, twenty seems enough for us to deal with.

Two alarms can be set and there’s a fair degree of customisation as to when they can go off, but the most interesting feature is the Sleep Sounds wellness feature. There are 13 sounds to choose from including Ocean Waves and Pink Noise which are designed to help get to sleep with minimum fuss, though we did find the Kitten Purring sound to be a little off-putting.

For a speaker of its size the Roberts Zen Plus sounds better than expected. It’s clearer and detailed than the bigger Groov-e Zeus, striking a more natural tone across DAB and FM stations we listen to. It’s clear and crisp with the spoken word, inviting no sibilance as far as we can hear, and it sounds balanced across the frequency range. There’s not much to speak of in terms of bass but what’s provided is enough to communicate a decent sense of punch to the low end. We are less impressed with its performance as a Bluetooth speaker, bass isn’t as good as a Bluetooth speaker such as the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 and midrange clarity is something of a disappointment.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: Roberts Zen Plus

If you’re looking for a compact radio, we’d suggest having a look at the Roberts Revival Petite. It’s a smaller design than the Stream 94i above, and is nearly half the size and weight of the similarly portable Revival Mini, small enough to carry in one hand. 

If you like your radios to make a visual statement then the Petite six vibrant colours with a faux leather finish and bronze details, the red finish of our review sample looked beautiful. We also liked the placement of the display and controls on the front of the radio, which allowed us to see what was playing at a quick glance.

Along with its DAB/FM support, there’s Bluetooth for streaming audio and an auxiliary port for wired playback. There isn’t the same level of features on bigger, more expensive radios with no Wi-Fi and therefore no streaming services such as Spotify Connect. To stream from services such as Spotify, it’d need to be done through the Bluetooth connection. The built-in battery offers up to 20 hours of playtime, though we were impressed to find it ran closer to 28 hours.

When it comes to the Petite’s audio performance, we found it packed a surprising amount of punch for its size and it comes equipped with a bass radiator to provide additional power. Music is crisp and dynamic, but the radio is limited in volume. Its compact size makes it perfect for listening around the house or taking on a day out to the park.

That said, it doesn’t feature an IP rating so we’d suggest steering clear of pools and beaches. If you’re in need of a more rugged wireless speaker for the outdoors, the the Wonderboom 2 would be a better choice.

Reviewer: Hannah Davies
Full Review: Roberts Revival Petite

In the market for an affordable bedside radio? Groov-e specialises in that market and the Zeus strikes a good balance of affordability and price, as well as boasting a wireless charging support that helps make it a convenient option for those glued to their mobile phones.

The design is not the most attractive, the hard black shell subscribes to function over aesthetics but we found its construction to be a step up from that of Groov-e’s cheaper Venice portable radio. On the front is a small LCD display that’s big and bright enough to read, and usefully the backlight can be adjusted if you don’t want it shining bright when sleeping, for example. Around the back Around the back is the telescopic aerial, 3.5mm input, USB port for charging a device and the power supply.

On top is where you’ll find the radio’s wireless charging panel and despite Groov-e’s claims, in our tests it didn’t reach the performance expected. The Zeus says it has 10W of power at its disposal but using the Amperes Lite Charging Battery app on an iPhone 13 mini that figure came out to be 5.41W and dropped even further with subsequent attempts to charge the phone. We’d suggest using the USB port unless you really want the convenience of the wireless charging (or don’t have a compatible cable at hand).

The audio quality is a step up from the Zeus, the tone is crisp but we found the radio adopted a smoother performance and added more oomph to the low frequencies. Its sense of clarity is good, though we did find the more expensive Roberts Zen Plus to be clearer. The mid-bass region of the frequency isn’t the clearest, the transition between midrange and bass isn’t always described with confidence but when it comes to the spoken word the Zeus treats them clearly and presents them foremost in the soundstage. We did note sibilant tones every now and then, but enough to cause any irritating issues.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: Groov-e Zeus